Guild Wars 2

My elementalist is lvl 58 and isn’t fully geared. Should I focus my trait points in Water and Earth for survivability? And what weapon set should I use? I’m currently using S/D.

What is the primary role of the elementalist in dungeons?

You should use the weapon set you’re the most comfortable with. Water is great for survability, I personally also like 30 in Arcana for the Elemental Attunement trait which gives regen when you switch to water and protection when you switch to earth and Evasive Arcana which gives you a heal when you dodge in water.

There are not really defined roles for any class in dungeons. Some people like going all out on DPS, others like going more supportive. Just being able to keep yourself alive is the first thing you need to learn, the rest will come later. C:

Edit: Oh and if you have never done a dungeon before I suggest you could start with AC Story, as Explorable mode can be a little unforgiving for new people sometimes.

You should also let the rest of the party know that it is the first time you are doing the dungeon. There are some minor details that can be important like killing the wrong spider hatchlings too early in the first boss encounter in AC.

Whether or now you should spec into water and earth depends on how squishy you feel or if you think the traits would fit well with your playstyle. If you have no problem surviving then there is no need. On the other hand you may still want to spec into them for traits that can help your allies.

For AC specifically, your role is to summon Frost Bows and Fiery Greatswords. Not kidding.

Dungeon eles are strongest with scepter/focus due to its boonstacking potential and utility skills; a Celestial elementalist with Lightning Hammers and Fiery Greatswords routinely outdamages full berserker warriors (thus being the very best class type in the game for gating CoFp1), while also buffing said warriors with might making them stronger than they normally are.

However, focusing on boonstacking and utility skills makes the build much weaker for any form of PvP content, so most people prefer to run the Fresh Air type build for everything.

Water is generally better for survivability than earth. Combining Arcana 30 and water 15 allows you to AoE Regen, AoE Soothing Mist and burst AoE heal on water attune, followed by a second burst AoE heal if you dodge on water.

There are several mechanics that define what classes do best in what specific areas. Most players like to use a build for a class that does all content passably well, but the primary strengths of the elementalist specifically are boonstacking and ranged AoE damage. The former is best done with S/F and is good for dungeons, the latter is best done with staves and is good for WvW. The primary weaknesses of the elementalist are low single target damage, vulnerability to being Immobilised and low damage multipliers on non-Conjured weapon auto attacks.

It’s worth noting that the S/F support ele is one of the only ways in the game to do the CoFp2 solo run before Magg drops fire extinguishers. This can save up to 2 minutes on every CoFp2 run since the ele can initiate the oracyte dialogue, then complete the run before the oracyte dialogue finishes, so that when the rest of the party waypoints to the start, Magg can be instantly teleported to the kaboomium ore without any lag in between.

Specced right, a dungeon ele can outheal, outdamage and outsurvive any other build in the game in PvE. It’s useless for PvP though. Nor can it cc very well… but since anything worth ccing in a dungeon also has Defiant anyway, that gap is a bit irrelevant.